


Good Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

by wafflelate



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Dimension Travel, Friendship, Gen, POV Haruno Sakura, Protect Lan Fan 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:06:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22216756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/pseuds/wafflelate
Summary: There's some kind of explosion or building collapse several streets over. "We should go see what that was," Kiba says. Akamaru barks in agreement and wags his tail. Sakura is pretty sure he's only saying that because he's bored.
Relationships: Inuzuka Kiba & Haruno Sakura, Inuzuka Kiba & Haruno Sakura & Lan Fan
Comments: 15
Kudos: 378
Collections: Dreaming of Sunshine Exchange 2019 B, Heliocentrism — a Dreaming of Sunshine recursive collection





	Good Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CookieBlaze](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CookieBlaze/gifts).



There's some kind of explosion or building collapse several streets over. "We should go see what that was," Kiba says. Akamaru barks in agreement and wags his tail. Sakura is pretty sure he's only saying that because he's bored. With Shikako out of the picture, Kiba technically has seniority...but Sakura is the one with the genjutsu skills to hide them, so it's her decision. Sakura both loves and hates that. 

"We really shouldn't borrow trouble," Sakura says. She's hiding them under the False Surroundings genjutsu that Kurenai-sensei had drilled Sakura and the rest of the kunoichi club in over and over again. No one in this strange country has so far reacted to genjutsu at all, probably because none of them seem to use chakra consciously. It will be harder to keep her genjutsu up around them on the move, and they have no idea what kind of sensory abilities people here have. 

They could end up entangled in something they have no stake in. The smart thing to do would be to stick to the plan: stay put, eat rations, steal food as a last resort, and wait for Shikako to figure out how to reverse summon them. 

Kiba gives her a pleading look. Akamaru whines pathetically. 

It sounds like it might be a fight, and they _could_ always use more intel about what kind of opponents they might be facing here. 

Sakura sighs and stands up. Being bored for awhile had been a nice change from being terrified but now it's wearing thin. She brushes non-existent dirt off of her dress and holds back a smile when she sees Kiba and Akamaru light up out of the corner of her eye. Because she has control of the genjutsu, she's the one to lead the way around the back of the nearest building and up to the rooftops. 

Before they can reach the sight of the disturbance, a fat man races across the rooftops across the street, faster and with more grace than Sakura would expect. He's talking about _eating_ someone, probably one of the people fighting in the street below, and Sakura grimaces because she and Kiba don't have any idea what's going on here but she knows that she absolutely categorically does not want to see anyone get eaten. 

It's a relief when a masked ninja appears and slams their foot into the fat man's face, sending him careening through the air. 

The ninja's companion is a man with a sword and a smile. "Hi!" he says. "How's it goin'? That is one pretty unusual body you've got there. Just how many people are inside you?" 

His style of dress seems foriegn for this strange country, but it's much more familiar to Sakura than anything else she's seen people wearing. She immediately likes him. 

The fat man asks who they are. The ninja — female, from her voice — reveals that she and her companion are sensors and will be able to follow the fat man, information that Sakura's not sure she should have shared. The fat man threatens (or, rather, _promises_ , ugh) to eat his opponents. 

"Gross," Kiba mutters. Sakura really, really agrees. 

An older man in one of this country's blue military uniforms approaches, calls the masked ninja and her teammate a nuisance, draws his swords, and leaps into the fight with speed and control Sakura hasn't seen anyone else in this country even begin to approach. He goes straight up the wall, exactly the way Sakura would expect from any opponent above genin rank, and the masked ninja's reflexes clearly aren't up to this fight. Her companion screams her name, must see death closing in on her as surely as Sakura can see it. 

The masked ninja's name is Lan Fan and she manages to flinch back and bring a kunai up. One of the military man's swords breaks in half. Lan Fan hits the flat roof below her former perch hard. 

The fat man leaps forward to eat her — the military man tells him to "make it quick." 

Lan Fan is definitely a ninja but hasn't stuck to any walls or used any jutsu. The military man had, Sakura's pretty sure, only used _speed_ to scale the wall. 

None of these people are civilians, but even the ninja isn't a ninja the way Sakura would expect. 

Lan Fan's teammate has folded her over his shoulder in a comrade-carry and fled to a building down the block from Kiba and Sakura. The fat man and the military man follow; no one on the street below looks up. 

"I kind of like him," Kiba says about Lan Fan's teammate when they've crept a little closer. He can probably hear them, but Sakura is concentrating on her genjutsu and needs to conserve chakra, so she hasn't enhanced her hearing. 

"What are they saying?" Sakura asks, instead of saying something like _don't get attached_. She and Kiba had all the same kinds of lessons on that sort of thing in the Academy, _and_ he's from a clan, _and_ he's been on three or four times the missions she has. 

"Eyepatch's name is Bradley and he apparently runs this country, like a daimyō-Hokage combo," Kiba says. "Our guy—" Kiba's picked a side, clearly. "—disagrees with his politics. And won't leave his teammate behind." 

Interesting. The politics here aren't exactly relevant to her and Kiba, or at least shouldn't be, but it's uncertain when they'll be able to get back home so it's good to know who the major players are, at least. And very good to know how strong the man leading the country is, although Sakura doesn't intend to pick a fight with him. 

Bradley and Lan Fan's companion start fighting again. Someone sets off a flash-bang and Lan Fan's companion bails out of a window, straight into the street, and takes off running. Lan Fan is still over his shoulder, and still alive, but her arm leaves a splotchy trail of blood. 

Sakura hadn't seen the blow land earlier in enough detail to guess exactly what the injury is, but it's definitely bad. Her hands itch to fix it. 

"Let's follow them," Kiba suggests. 

They shouldn't. They really shouldn't, this is absolutely the definition of none of their business, and Anko-sensei would be so mad that she's even _considering_ it, but... what did Sakura learn to heal for if she's just going to let injured people who fight cannibals bleed to death right in front of her? She and Kiba dart after them, sticking to the high ground where it's easier to track them visually. 

Keeping the False Surrounding jutsu up on the move isn't Sakura's favorite activity, but she's gotten used to it since they arrived here. 

Ultimately they can't justify jumping into the fight. It's tempting, especially when Lan Fan and her companion are arguing about leaving he behind and Bradley is closing in, and it's almost _unbearable_ to just stand by and watch when Lan Fan cuts her own arm off to lead a false trail, but Sakura and Kiba can't engage in a fight with the enemy these strangers are fleeing from. They can only clutch each other's arms and grit their teeth. 

"We're not Team 7," Kiba says; Sakura doesn't know if he's reminder her or reminding himself. 

She does know that he's probably wishing Shikako and Sasuke-kun were here just as badly as she is. Or even Naruto. Any one of them alone would be better equipped for this entire crazy, awful situation ten times better than she and Kiba are. 

Kiba has to hold her back when Lan Fan's companion ducks into the sewer with Lan Fan over his shoulder still. "I don't think that tunnel is directly connected to the septic systems, at least," Kiba says, his nose wrinkling to underline the statement. It's still not sanitary, but that's _something_ at least. 

The sewers are such tight quarters that it would be much harder to follow Lan Fan and her companion without being noticed — and following them would potentially mean giving their escape route up to Bradley. So instead Sakura and Kiba follow the poor stray dog that Lan Fan's severed arm is affixed to, and watch as Brandley falls for the bait and succeeds only in cornering the dog and its cargo. 

He seems both impressed and annoyed He leave the dog and the arm as-is and goes back the way he came. 

For a moment, Sakura and Kiba stand there silently. Sakura drops their genjutsu and Akamaru sits down between them, panting openly now that the stealthy part of this mission is complete. 

"If we get the arm and find her, I could reattach it," Sakura says. 

Kiba looks away from the dog and blinks at her a few times in surprise. "Shit, really? I thought that that was like... Tsunade-level stuff." 

Akamaru looks up at her, too, and wags his tail encouragingly. 

"Shishou taught me. I haven't had a chance to do it on a live person yet. But there's been a lot of practice." 

Sakura had specifically asked after the skill, following Shikako and Shikamaru's return from Land of Moon. Even Tsunade-sama hasn't been able to fix the parts of Shikamaru's arm that Shikako had brought back, but she'd certainly _tried_ , and Sakura... well, this situation isn't exactly what she thought she'd been preparing for, but it's as good a time as any to test herself. It was a clean cut and worse case scenario she can graft skin from the arm over the stump to speed up the healing process and reduce scarring. 

"Alright," Kiba says. "It's not like we have anything better to do, right?" 

They could get back on track, go see what that fat man had peeled away from Bradely to do, but Sakura nods and goes to retrieve the arm and seal it up in the stasis seal she carries with her. They've learned plenty about the fat man and Bradley already, enough to know that they want to steer clear. 

Down in the sewers, they know before they find Lan Fan that she's alone — her scent continues on alone after her teammate's splits off in a different direction. "I didn't think he'd leave her behind," Kiba mutters. Sakura really hadn't either. But... 

"Sometimes you have to prioritize," she theorizes. "The other fight was probably connected. They probably have at least one other teammate." 

Kiba grimaces. He wonders if she's thinking about what she's thinking about — Shikako making the hard choice to set Ino aside during that mess with Sasuke and the Sound team — or if he's thinking of some other situation that no one's even told Sakura about. 

"Well, either way, we can help her," Sakura says, and they press forward. Now that they're in the sewer she's dropped the genjutsu to conserve chakra for the big healing she's planning, so they have to move carefully around corners in case there's someone waiting there none of them can detect. 

But they don't meet anyone until Akamaru wuffs quietly and Kiba says, "She's just up ahead. We'll go first, you wait here." 

Sakura hangs back without protest as Kiba and Akamaru move forward. Approaching an injured stranger is always risky, and Sakura doesn't have the chakra to waste on protecting herself. 

Sure enough, there's the quiet sounds of a vicious struggle — and Kiba swears at least once, he has such a dirty mouth — and then when Kiba gives her the all clear and Sakura joins them she finds him and Akamaru standing over an unconscious Lan Fan. One of Shikako's knock out seals flutters gently over her face in time to her breathing. 

Sakura gives Kiba a disapproving look. 

"Hey," Kiba protests, "she tried to stab me. Like, a _lot_. And the first rule is don't let stabby people near your medic, right?" 

He has a point, but Sakura doesn't dignify that with an answer. "I'm not operating here. We'll have to find an empty place to break into. Carry her." 

"Bossy," Kiba complains, but not _seriously_. That's one of the benefits of working with someone she's known for so long — she's _heard_ Kiba _really_ complain about things that bother him, so she can be sure that this is just friendly snarking. 

It's not always like that. 

Akamaru darts ahead to find an unoccupied residence for them to set up shop in — no one here looks twice at stray dogs — and when he comes back to lead them to it Kiba is the one to keep up a shaky False Surroundings genjutsu through the back alleys and side streets that does the bare minimum: hides the fact that they come out of the sewer and proceed through the street in broad daylight carrying a recent amputee. ("My control is crap," Kiba says, "It's my worst skill. But you think Kurenai would let us go _anywhere_ without making sure we can at least do this much?") 

Akamaru has found them a vacant apartment with a weathered FOR SALE sign perched on the only window facing the street. Rather than try to get in through the front door like civilians, she and Kiba circle around back and proceed up the wall, entering through a window that Sakura jimmies open since Kiba's hands are kind of full. The apartment is completely devoid of furniture, but it's clean enough. 

Sakura gets to work. 

Afterwards, when her patient is sleeping, she has to talk to Kiba. She has to say, "I don't think we're just across the ocean." 

He makes a puzzled face at her. 

"She doesn't have chakra coils," Sakura says. 

"Like Lee?" 

"No, not like Lee. Like...I went to make sure her chakra system would be connected, even though she clearly doesn't use chakra, and there was just... _nothing_." 

"That's weird as _fuck_ ," Kiba complains. "Maybe Shikako won't be able to get us back so easy, huh?" 

Sakura hadn't wanted to be the one to voice the thought, but...yeah. "She'll still try," Sakura says, to reassure herself more than Kiba. "And eventually she'll do it. If we can be sent here we can go back. She won't give up." 

"Still," Kiba says. "This changes things." 

Sakura nods. A long-term stay changes a _lot_ of things. She and Kiba and Akamaru are essentially looking at being stranded in enemy territory for the foreseeable future. It might take Shikako a really long time to work out out to get them back. They have to conserve resources, start assimilating into the culture, and maybe even find jobs and paperwork and backstories. Sakura doesn't know about Kiba, but _she's not actually trained for that_. 

This mission is a complete and utter disaster. 

While they wait for Lan Fan to wake up, Sakura takes a nap and Akamaru goes out looking for Lan Fan's errant teammate. The sun is setting when Lan Fan comes to, sits bolt upright, and grabs for weapons she no longer has on her person. It startles Sakura out of her own sleep — she first assesses that Kiba is between herself and Lan Fan, then that Akamaru is back, and then finally she's interested to watch Lan Fan realize she has both arms, furrow her brow, and then focus back in on Sakura and Kiba. 

"Who are you?" Lan Fan demands, and wisely does not attack. 

"I'm Kiba, that's Sakura." Kiba jerks a thumb over his shoulder at her while she's climbing out of her bedroll and suppressing a yawn. "And this is Akamaru," Akamaru barks. "We found your arm and thought you'd want it back." 

"We had the afternoon free," Sakura adds. 

"You're alkahestrists," Lan Fan assesses. 

Kiba and Sakura look at each other and shrug. Sure, why not. They can be alka-whatevers. 

Lan Fan's hands clench in her lap. "Thank you," she says. "I owe you a great debt — and I swear I will repay it — but I must find my lord." She crawls out of the bedroll they'd put her in and struggles to her feet. 

Sakura sighs. Of course patients _here_ wouldn't be anymore pleased to stay in bed and recover before flinging themselves back into danger than patients back home, but she had foolishly held out hope. "You're in no condition to travel." 

"I must," Lan Fan insists, making for the door. She immediately stumbles, loses her balance, and careens towards the floor. 

Kiba, who's standing closest, catches her easily and supports her with hands that are careful not to touch the arm Sakura had just spent several hours reattaching. "Whoa there," he says. "Let us help you." 

Kiba is kind of a softie, but...well, there's nothing better for them to do and they're definitely not likely to find support from this country's government given what they just saw of the man who leads it. Lan Fan is clearly some kind of foreign and definitely working against the government here, so her group will probably be a better resource for people like Sakura and Kiba, who have no paperwork or anything. 

"We'll take turns carrying you," Sakura suggests, even though she's still exhausted from surgery. "If my patient is going out there, so am I." 

Lan Fan hesitates majorly. "It will be dangerous." 

"Everything's dangerous," Kiba says philosophically. 

Lan Fan doesn't exactly have a choice — if she wants to go anywhere, she needs help — so she agrees. They head out based on her directions, and Kiba takes first shift carrying her. Maybe Sakura will get to punch something. She's kind of _dying_ to punch something. 


End file.
